![]() Annual working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $23,437,891 will be obligated at time of award, and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.Īugust 25/23: Propulsors Goodrich won a $20.7 million modification to exercise options for manufacturing activities in support of Virginia class submarine propulsors. All work will be performed in Linden, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed by September 2027. This is a stand-alone contract with no options. Recent discussions concerning an earlier shift to 2 submarines per year would result in faster production of the Block III submarines, but would be unlikely to make a huge difference to that learning curve.Īugust 28/23: Atmosphere Control Hansome Energy won a $31.2 million deal or the procurement of 143 vane axial fans in support of the Virginia-class submarine atmosphere control system. While the changes themselves will begin with the FY 2009 ship, the savings are targeted at FY 2012 because of the learning curve required as part of the switch. With the $19 million ($11 + 8) from the LAB array and Vertical Payload, and the $20 million from the associated changes, General Dynamics is $39 million toward the $200 million baseline costs goal of “2 for 4 in 12”. These are estimated to reduce construction costs by another $20 million per hull beginning with the FY 2012 submarine. ![]() The bow redesign is not limited to these changes, however, and includes 25 associated redesign efforts. The SUBSAFE eliminations, plus the life-of-the-hull transducers, will help to reduce the submarines’ life cycle costs as well by removing moving parts that require maintenance, eliminating possible points of failure and repair, and removing the need for transducer replacements in drydock. This is rather par for the course, as the Virginia Class’ was created in the 1990s to incorporate key elements of the $4 billion Seawolf Class submarine technologies into a cheaper boat. It utilizes transducers from the SSN-21 Seawolf Class that are that are designed to last the life of the hull. The LAB Array has 2 primary components: the passive array, which will provide improved performance, and a medium-frequency active array. Eliminating the hundreds of SUBSAFE penetrations that help maintain required pressure in the air-backed sonar sphere will save approximately $11 million per hull, and begins with the FY 2012 boats (SSNs 787-788). The other big change you can see in the above diagram is switching from an air-backed sonar sphere to a water-backed Large Aperture Bow (LAB) array. Net savings are about $8 million to program baseline costs. Nevertheless, they will share a great deal of common technology, allowing innovations on either platform to be incorporated into the other submarine class during major maintenance milestones. The Virginia’s hull has a smaller cross-section than the converted ballistic missile SSGNs, so the “6-shooters” will be shorter and a bit wider. The most obvious change is the switch from 12 vertical launch tubes, to 12 missiles in 2 tubes that use technology from the Ohio Class special forces/ strike SSGN program. The Navy believes that moving from the current joint construction arrangement will shave FY05$ 200 million from the cost of each submarine, leaving another FY05$ 200 million (about $220 million) to be saved through ship design and related changes. In real dollars subject to inflation, that means about $2.6 billion per sub in 2012, and $2.7 billion in 2013. According to Congressional Research Service report #R元2418, and the Navy is working toward a goal of shaving FY05$ 400 million from the cost of each Virginia Class boat, and buying 2 boats in FY2012 for combined cost of $4.0 billion in FY 2005 dollars – a goal referred to as “2 for 4 in 12”. In FY 2005 dollars, SSN-21 submarines cost between $3.1-3.5 billion each. ![]() The Virginia Class program was supposed to reach 2 submarines per year by 2002, removing it from the unusual joint construction approach between General Dynamics Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding – but that goal has been pushed back to 2012 in progressive planning budgets. In the end, the Seawolf Class became a technology demonstrator program that was canceled at 3 ships, and the Virginia Class became the naval successor to America’s famed SSN-688 Los Angeles Class. The resulting submarine would have learned some of the Seawolf program’s negative procurement lessons, while performing capably in land attack, naval attack, special forces, and shallow water roles. The SSN-774 Virginia Class submarine was introduced in the 1990s as a Clinton-era reform that was intended to take some of the SSN-21 Seawolf Class’ key design and technology advances, and place them in a smaller, less heavily-armed, and less expensive platform. ![]()
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